Lachen Und Weinen
by HeartCurl23
Summary: The young German sister always had problems with learning German speech, so when she comes home from school with a German song from her advanced choir class, Ludwig gets an idea to teach her at least more German vocabulary.


Looking over my music with furrowed brows, I sighed. "...Here goes nothing." I grumbled before I played the CD. When the introduction was over, I started singing the words on the page, pronouncing them exactly how they were spelled. "Lachen und Weinen zu jegltcher Stunde~ ruhtben der Liebauf so macherlei Grunde~"

"What are you doing?" I jumped at the sound of the second voice before turning to the door twitching. In the doorway was none other than my older brother, Ludwig, leaning on the door frame with his big arms crossed. His cold blue eyes looked up at me from under confused blond brows.

I sighed. "Don't scare me like that!" I shouted. "And, to answer your question, I'm doing Choir Homework."

He raised a brow at my answer. My brothers and I moved to America from Germany only a while ago, but after years of living in Germany, I never learned how to speak German, despite my brother's efforts to teach me. I learned a few words like 'liebe' and 'Danke' I guess that was why they kicked me and my brothers out. Now, here I am with a German song.

My brother sighed and came in the room, sitting on my bed and looking over the sheets of music. "Lachen Und Weinen, hm?" he asked, pronouncing it much different than I had. "What I don't understand is why they give such a difficult German love song to a twelve year old to learn individually."

"It's for regional choir competitions." I stated.

Ludwig proceeded to give me sideways glaces as a small smile spread over his lips. "Well, for starters, you weren't pronouncing any of these words right." he instructed. "When you see a 'ch' like that, is makes a 'k' sound, and 'w's make 'v' sounds, and 'j's make 'y' sounds, so the first line is supposed to sound like, 'Laukin und vienin zu yegltker stundeh'."

"What does that mean?" I asked curiously.

He smiled and looked over the words again. "'Laughing and crying I find love confusing. My heart keeps on changing, I find it not amusing.'"

Hearing the translation, I only furrowed my brows tighter. "But...I thought 'love' in German was 'liebe'. Why does it say 'jegltcher' when it's supposed to say 'love'?"

"There are more words or 'love' than just 'liebe'." he explained. "It all depends on the context...This gives me an idea..." he started, drifting off into space with a grin. He then took out a pencil and wrote in little notes above the measures on the pages. "Do you know the music? Can you hum it?" he asked.

I nodded. "That's easy!" I smiled happily. "It's just the German words that stop me from practicing. That's the hard part."

Ludwig then gave the sheets back to me with a smile. "Then sing the words I wrote." he advised. "Forget about the German words for now."

As he restarted the CD, I looked over the music again to see English words, singing them without a care of who was listening.

"Laughing and crying I find love confusing~

My heart keeps on changing, I find it not amusing~

In the morning, I laugh~

But then soon, I am crying~

By the dark evening moonlight~

Will the answer be clear~?

Will the answer be clear~?

"Crying and laughing I find love confusing~

My heart keeps on changing, I find it not amusing~

In the evening my heart aches~

But then why do I wake in the morning with laughter~?

I ask of you my aching heart~

I ask of you my aching heart~"

Ludwig's smile grew wider. "Now that you know what the song is about, let's break it down sentence by sentence." With that, he started working with me on the German words.

The next morning, I skipped down the stairs happily. "Morning Frau." Gilbert greeted me, lazily tipping his morning beer bottle for a drink.

"Guten Morgen großen Bruder~!" I sang, causing him to choke up his beer and stare at me with wide red eyes. Ludwig saw me dancing around the house with a smile on his face as I grabbed his hand and twirled under it. "Haben Sie gut geschlafen?" I asked.

Still dumbfounded, my oldest brother slowly set down his alcoholic drink and pushed it away in distaste. "...That's enough beer for one day..."


End file.
